By Cassidy Bohan
Yesterday, Facebook officially announced the platform redesign that will give members more control over the status updates, news stories and other postings that appear in their News Feed. The design is mobile inspired and reduces clutter, thereby increasing the focus on visuals. It will be trickling out over time, so as to give Facebook time to monitor the results and optimize as needed. Eager to be one of the first? You can join the wait list here.

Three major changes:

Colorful, vibrant visuals to spotlight what your friends are sharing. Images and videos will now take up the full width of the page and have the ability to play within the feed.

Increased emphasis on a brand’s (or individual’s) cover photo. As groups of friends interact with a page, the cover photo may actually be pulled into the feed, providing a big opportunity to further coopt friends of fans.

Increased attention directed at posts from news publishers and businesses.

Streamlined messages for campaigns from desktop to mobile.

New sub-feed allows users to focus on only what their friends are sharing and avoid brand messages if they choose (through the All Friends category.) NOTE: Brands will still be able to advertise in these feeds, but should be careful of interrupting the authentic flow of the feed.

If users follow a certain brand, they will receive related articles based on the most commonly shared stories.

Recommendations:

Increase frequency and quality of visuals in sponsored stories and ads, as the visual components will be the most prominent feature of feeds.

Share relevant links with fans to increase presence and visibility. Accordingly, Facebook will now display thumbnail photos pulled from story pages the same size as images you would upload directly to the News Feed.

Ensure your brand page cover photo will grab the attention of your audience if organically appearing in the News Feed.

Capitalize on timely news topics to increase the likelihood of being featured in the News Feed.